Articles - Page 3 of 11 - Mary Kienstra

This is the time when teachers make those summer resolutions. They’re not unlike New Year Resolutions, except they have a summer spin. Every summer my list includes read more, exercise more, and organize my house. The actual projects might vary, but the ideas are the same every summer. Working on my “exercise more” resolution, I realized that […]
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Why is it that our students will sit and listen to total strangers in a way that they would never listen to their teacher? When we invite the experts to our classrooms, our students learn from primary sources. They hear real information and listen in a new way. Last year, I invited experts of all kinds […]
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Don’t ever tell fourth or fifth graders that they will be speed dating during class. They would giggle nervously and then complain that they don’t want to do that. But, if you have them dress up as their favorite character from a book and bring a few things to talk about, they will love it. […]
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The biggest complaint from teachers is that there is never enough time. Once the school year begins, the time just flies by – there is so much to do. But, summer…. Ah, summer. This is the season when teachers have time. Summer is the time to learn. Yay Summer! Summer Spark at the University School in Milwaukee […]
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What do you do at the end of the school year when the standard is data analysis? Create a survey project! It makes perfect sense. Kids will care much more about analyzing the data that they collect than about any data presented in the text. Let them create their own. Take a survey. Create a […]
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When students care, everything changes. Fourth graders have a tremendous amount of compassion for animals. What better way to hook them than to tap into that passion with the essential question, “Why should we care?” After studying the importance of sharks in the ocean, we continued the theme with more large mammals. Timing is everything. […]
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Some classes have the “IT” factor. That’s the class where the kids all care. Not about just the content. They care for each other too. They are a true community. They work together well and all seem to be pulling in the same direction. I look at this year’s class and wonder what we did […]
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What happens when kids create their own Estimation Station questions? They learn how to ask good questions, to measure, and to present their questions and answers in pictures. And… while they work on math, they enjoy every minute of it. All year long the fourth graders have been estimating everything from times of songs, distances […]
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When kids care, it changes everything. Engaging kids in non-fiction reading is all about bringing the topic to life. The trick is finding an issue to make them care. Tracking sharks and learning about the ocean is just that issue. And www.ocearch.org brings it to life. This week my students met Chris Fischer, the founder of Ocearch. […]
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Why not use games to help kids learn vocabulary? It sure is much more engaging than handing them a list of words and telling them to memorize them. This week my class is practicing geometry vocabulary words with the party game “Heads Up” and they are loving it. Heads Up Vocabulary Games – an engaging […]
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